Arenac Township amends budget

Demands Consumers fixes streetlights

ARENAC TWP. — Several parts of the Arenac Township budget were on track to run into the red with half of the fiscal year left to go, forcing the township board to tweak the budget at its meeting Nov. 1.

According to Supervisor Jim Daly, four parts of the budget were either going to run over, or already had: the phone line, the township auditing, the township’s insurances, and the road-brining budget.

The auditing is projected to be $300 over budget by the end of the fiscal year, Daly said. The township budgeted $2,300 for it, but as of Oct. 29 was looking at $2,600 as the actual cost.

For the CenturyLink phone bill, the township budgeted $612 but had already spent approximately $554, leaving a remaining balance of $57.

“They may not have been good numbers to begin with,” Daly said about the phone budget.

The road brining is over budget due to the fact the township had added two additional roads — Hansel Road and Hickory Island Road — to the list of ones to get brined in the summer months, but neglected to adjust the budget to include them. The township budgeted $1,140 for the brining, but has spent $1,272, leaving a deficit of approximately $132.

The insurances and pension budget had a proposed amount of $6,000, but year-to-date the township has spent about $7,536 on it, Daly said. As a result, the township is $1,536 in the red for that expense.

The board agreed unanimously to use about $2,265 from the miscellaneous income, a little less than half of the amount in the fund, to cover the shortfalls. Daly said the year is nearly half over, and the township had not touched any money in that account.

The township had budgeted $1,000 for the miscellaneous income account, but it was sitting at $4,639. Funds enter that account through interest and hall rental fees.

The board also decided to have Daly contact Consumers Energy about a streetlight on Wyatt Road at the US-23 intersection that has stopped functioning properly.

“The light goes on and off,” Daly said. “The bulb probably needs to be changed. The light on the other side of the street is doing the same thing.”

He added he did not know how far down the lights are on Consumers’ list of streetlights to service, while Clerk Cindy Halamar said Consumers had been called about the light in the past and had never come to fix it.

Daly said he would try and contact the Standish Consumers Energy office once again to try and have it fixed.

Halamar said the light had been removed originally when US-23 was widened, adding that it took her and Daly about three years to get Consumers Energy to reinstall it at the intersection.